Acquisition offers alternative to Australians

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Aug 4, 2006

BSI Group has acquired Benchmark Certification, the second largest certification company in Australia.

BSI Group - one of the world's biggest providers of business improvement services - has announced its acquisition of Benchmark Certification, the second largest certification company in Australia.

The acquisition will shake up Australia's certification and assurance market which is currently dominated by a single local supplier.

BSI Management Systems, the certification arm of BSI Group, operates in 86 countries, with 60,000 certified locations worldwide.

It is the largest certifier in the UK and North America.

Flemming Norklit, Managing Director of BSI Management Systems said: "BSI is absolutely delighted to be in Australia".

"This move enables us to give Australian businesses seeking process improvements a real international choice for the first time".

"BSI can also provide a gateway to Europe, giving manufacturers in Australia ready access to CE marking for the European market, and it is our intention for Benchmark Certification to sell our standards".

"Additionally, BSI can offer an even more seamless global certification process to our many global and major international clients who are looking for state-of-the-art services".

Shaun Marshall, Managing Director of Benchmark Certification said: "This is a hugely exciting move for Benchmark and all of our customers".

"BSI is a world leader in business and performance improvement systems, and the credibility and reputation of its internationally recognised brand will open the way for us to compete more effectively than ever in Australia and in our other global markets".

"Being part of BSI also gives us access to its expertise with the European product CE mark, which is a growing part of our business".

"It means that the overall message to our clients is that we can now deliver an even better service to them".

Speaking in New York, Lloyd Barker, Director, Corporate Quality for Alcoa - a BSI global client - said: "Alcoa is delighted with BSI's acquisition in Australia".

"This means BSI can now deliver a management systems assessment solution which is truly global, leading to gains for us in consistency, efficiency and effectiveness around the world".

The Asia-Pacific region is a major and rapidly growing market for BSI Management Systems.

26% of the group's staff is now based in the region, serving 11,000 clients from nearly 30 offices from New Delhi to Osaka.

BSI is already the market leader globally and in the region in the certification of information security management systems.

BSI is a leader in the development of standards based business solutions, and as such is the originator of the world's most popular management systems standards and specifications.

These include the ISO9000 series of quality management standards, ISO14001 for environmental management, ISO/IEC27001 for information security management, OHSAS18001 for occupational health and safety, ISO10002 for complaints management and ISO/IEC20000 for IT service management.

These management specifications have achieved global acceptance as tools to enhance the effectiveness of organisations.

To date nearly 20,000 Australian companies have been certified as meeting these standards.

BSI is also at the leading edge of developing standards in emerging technologies such as nanotechnology, biometrics and regenerative medicine - all of which will have a global impact in the future.

Benchmark Certification was family owned and set up in 1993, in response to increasing demands from Australian companies for a professional alternative to the dominant local supplier.

The company is headquartered in Sydney, with operations across Australia and serving 12 other countries including China, India, Malaysia, Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia, Turkey and Iran.

Benchmark Certification has also entered the product testing market, and is able to certify a wide range of products.

These include plumbing products (under the Watermark) and will shortly include building products (under the Codemark).

Stevan Breeze, CEO of BSI Group, commented: "BSI Group delivers world class results in everything that we do".

"We provide integrated solutions across the board which include standards and certification services, backed by comprehensive training and state-of-the-art product testing and enterprise management systems - all of which enable companies to optimise bottom line performance against best in class".

"Most importantly this acquisition gives Australian companies the opportunity to share in prevailing best practice for standards based solutions, improving their competitiveness in the global arena".